Israeli soccer team officials arrested on suspicion of ‘systematic’ fraud, law enforcement says

Four officials in an Israeli Premier League soccer team were arrested on suspicion of “systematic” counterfeiting, money laundering, fraud, and failure to report players’ salaries to tax authorities over the course of four seasons, according to a joint statement from police, the Tax Authority and the Justice Ministry.

Law enforcement officials seized real estate and luxury cars as part of the investigation, according to the statement, which says “the scale of the crimes” in the unnamed soccer team is to the tune of tens of millions of shekels.

The arrests and seizures follow a months-long undercover investigation conducted in cooperation with the Israel Football Association, the national governing body for soccer, the statement says.

The National Unit for Combating Economic Crime, a part of police’s Lahav 433 major crimes division, will summon dozens of current and former players from the team in the coming days as part of the investigation, the statement adds.